AS SEEN ON TV
Israel honors RP for playing Schindler
The late Holocaust survivor Frank Ephraim was 8 years old when he first set foot in the Philippines in 1939. He fled from Berlin with his parents to escape persecution by the Nazis in Europe and found new home here. Although he left the country for the United States after World War 2, Ephraim had fond recollections of 6 years in the Philippines, an unlikely destination for Jews during the Holocaust years. He described the train and boat trip as long and tedious, with stops in places almost unknown to a boy who grew up in Europe. Berlin, Naples, Port Said, Aden, Bombay, Colombo, Singapore, and finally Manila.
In his book “Escape to Manila”, he wrote about his fascination for Dewey Boulevard, (now Roxas Boulevard) where they docked. Ephraim was awed by the iconic sunset which continues to draw people to Manila Bay to this day. He also mentioned about the Filipinos’ penchant for the local (and stomach churning) delicacy called “balut” and the warm hospitality of Filipinos, even at a time when the nation was also struggling with persecution from Nazi ally, the Japanese Imperial Army.
Before the war, there would have been about ten thousand Jews to be resettled in Mindanao as immigrant agricultural settlers under an agreement between the United States and Philippine governments in 1938. The growing Nazism in Europe sent the US and Israel in a “beg fest” with other countries to accept Jewish refugees. If not for the complexity of local land acquisition by foreigners, the so called “Mindanao Plan” which promises settlement for Jewish refugees in the now tourist island garden of Samal in Davao City, would have materialized. Its proponents under the administration of President Manuel L. Quezon also faced local opposition to the plan.
The resettlement idea may have failed but the ensuing world war was an occasion for the Philippines to exhibit its trademark hospitality anew, thru President Quezon’s “Open Door” policy for Jews. On June 21, 1939, the country opened its doors to Jewish refugees, who obtained visas to the Philippines courtesy of the US government.
The Philippines was so hospitable that Jewish workers who found work in the Philippines, were even “paid slightly higher than the average Filipino worker”, Ephraim writes.
June 21, 2009 marks the 70th year of the Philippines’ Open Door policy for Jews in World War 2. As a fitting reminder and recognition of the country’s contribution in easing the pain of Jews during their most difficult time, the Israeli government immortalizes the humanitarian gesture with a monument at the Reshion Lezion Holocaust Memorial Park.
In a statement by the Israeli Embassy in Manila, the Open Doors Monument "will be a living legacy of the Filipino generosity and humanitarian assistance to the Jews, a lasting symbol which also commemorates more than 50 years of friendship between Israel and the Philippines".
As an after thought, the world famous Filipino hospitality is like no other in the world. It is not unusual for us Filipinos to give more, even if we barely have any.
(Stanley Palisada is currently News Director of ABS-CBN Regional Network Group and anchor at both ABS-CBN and ANC. Before his current position in the ABS-CBN headquarters, Palisada worked as News Chief of ABS-CBN Iloilo and the pioneering anchor of TV Patrol Iloilo.)